OWEN, Giles. Detailed manuscript Flora of Mid Cheshire, centred on Barnton and Northwitch undertaken over twenty five years and written up in 1938. “Dedicated to the village of Barnton, my native place, where I commenced the a Botanical Survey”. Pp 61 of manuscript text in a fine hand in ink, mainly on rectos , including pen and ink drawings with four fine watercolours of plants. This is an important and exhaustive Flora, listing and giving the locations of hundreds of different species of plant. Latin names are given, as well as common names, and there is a page devoted to “local lore” offering local derivations of named plants. Owen writes “ in compiling a list of wildflowers of mid Cheshire contained in the area of seven miles radius of Northwich I have endeavoured to find out the wild plants that grow within the above area. I have surveyed the district during the last twenty five years and find that a great percentage of plants are common to the county. In some instances I have found plants not indigenous to Cheshire that have made their appearance and become established, and in others have disappeared after a year or so…….I have compared my list with “The Flora Of Cheshire” by Lord de Tabley 1885 and find that they largely agree, though in some cases a few plants have become extinct , or rarely appear.” The work seems to have been written up in 1938, but there is a sad later addition , dated 1952: “ The whole area of the Northwich Flashes 1952 was taken over by the neighbouring Chemical Works for the use of waste lime; the two brooks have been diverted to the River Weaver, and as a consequence the….interesting flora is no longer to be found, likewise large numbers of wading birds have been robbed of their favourite resting place , some whilst on migration and others daily, so birds will have to find fresh places.” A sad evocation of a past landscape and Flora, and an important record . [Giles Owen was a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society, Member and Vice President of the British Empire Naturalists Association, and President of the Manchester Branch, Member of the Coward Memorial Committee for Bird Sanctuaries, and fellow of Chester Society of Natural Science. Literature and Art. Owen’s diaries are held in the National Archive.]